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BULLETIN OF THE WISCONSIN STATE 
BOARD OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION 



NO. 4 



The Education of the Girl 



THE NECESSITY OF FITTING HER EDUCATION 
TO HER LIFE 



BY 



L. D. HARVEY, President 

of the 
Stout Institute, Menomonie, Wis. 



MADISON 

Published by the Board 
1912 



Monograph 



D, OF D. 
APR/ 25 1913 



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V 



The Education of the Girl 



The Necessity of Fitting her Education to her Life 



Shall the Girl Have the Same Education as the Boy? 

A generation ago the discussion waxed warm upon the question of 
the physical and mental ability of the girl to do the work pre- 
scribed for her brother in the higher educational institutions, in 
the same time and in the same way that he was to do it. The opening 
of the doors of these institutions to women on the same basis as to 
men, and the success of the girls in them is a sufficient indication of 
the answer to that question. The discussion has practically been 
closed. The girl has demonstrated and is demonstrating her ability 
to achieve success in the highest fields of educational effort. But 
the settlement of that question has not settled the other — whether 
the girl needs and should have the same education as the boy. 
Until very recently the organization of school systems, the fram- 
ing of courses of study for elementary and secondary schools, and 
of the curricula of higher educational institutions have proceeded 
upon the assumption that the needs of the boy and the girl in edu- 
cation were the same, and to be met through the study of the same 
subjects. These subjects were chosen and their scope determined 
almost solely with reference to the boy. It was left for the girl to 
proceed along the same line if she were to proceed at all. Some 
men and many women have argued effectively for the right of the 
girl to follow in the educational footsteps of her brother — until 
that right has been conceded. In recent years, the question as to 
whether this is the only right to education possessed by the girl 
has been coming to the front, until today it is one of the most im- 
portant questions to be considered in connection with the develop- 



* Paper read before the N. E. A., Department of Superintendence, al 
Si. Louis, Missouri, February, 1912, and printed by the Stale Board of 
Industrial Education by request of State Association of City Superintend- 
ents and Supervising Principals. 



— 4 — 

liiriit of our educational system. Some concessions have already 
been made — the introduction of sewing and cooking as subjects of 
instruction in many public and private schools is a slight recogni- 
tion of the fact that the girl needs for her training some things 
that have do place in the training of the boy. 

Necessity for Differentiation Exists 

The elective system in the higher educational institutions 
coupled with the conservative admission of subjects that might be 
attractive to girls if not to boys, and the election oJ' these subjects 
by many "-iris, is a further recognition of this difference in Deeds. 
A serious consideration of the question discloses the fact that an 
adequate differentiation of the materials, means, and methods to be 
employed in the education of girls and boys has not yet been made. 
We have been for years multiplying special, technical, and pro- 
fessional schools of varying aim and scope to fit boys and young 
men for the active duties in life, growing out of changed industrial, 
social, commercial , and political conditions. These schools have 
come into existence because of the demand for that kind of educa- 
tion which shall lit young men to do what, by reason of their man- 
hood, they may do, and by reason of the requirements of societj 
needs to be done. Many of these schools throw their doors open 
to women, and a few women have availed themselves of the oppor- 
tunity thus afforded. They have not proved attractive to girls in 
the same measure as to boys for the reason that the world recog- 
nizes certain classes of work as peculiarly men's work, ami other 
• •lasses of work as peculiarly women's work. That some women 
and fewer men do not recognize this distinction, does not alter the 
situation. If a woman conceives herself able to do the work which 
society at large has regarded as the work of a man, she has an op- 
portunity to fit herself for it, and if she can find employment, she 
is at liberty to engage in it, but the fact remains that her entrance 
upon this field of activity is only an incident. With the man it is 
a life work — with the woman it is liable to be interrupted at anj 
time by the demands of her womanhood for home and family life. 
Few women have the physical and mental strength to meet the de- 
mands of the home life and the demands of a vocation or a profes- 
sion outside of the home, and win success in both. That one oc- 
casionally does is no warrant for assuming that it is the general 
rale. That she wins success outside the home at the expense of 
the home life is an admission of failure. 



— 5 — 

The immense broadening- of the field of educational effort for 
men in recent years is not an accident. It has come because we 
have been studying the needs of the individual, of society, and of the 
state. We have been finding - out what a man needed to know and 
do in order to measure up to these demands, and have been fram- 
ing- courses of instruction to more definitely fit men to do this 
work. We need to study the question of the education of girls 
seriously, and from the same standpoint. What a boy needs to 
know and to do to fit him for success in any of the useful 
activities of life upon which he desires to enter is the basic ele- 
ment in determining the character of his education. What a 
woman needs to know and to do in order to meet the responsibilities 
that come to her in life is the basic element in determining what 
her education shall be. There is an immense amount of work 
needed to meet the needs of society that a woman cannot do and 
ought not to undertake, but which a man can and ought to do and 
do well. He should be fitted to do this work. It is a waste of time 
and energy to try to educate a woman for that work. There is 
an immense amount of work needed in the world which a woman 
can do and which a man cannot do and ous-ht not to undertake. The 
absurdity of trying to educate him to do the work for which he is 
unfitted by reason of his sex has been recognized, and it has not 
been attempted. There are many lines of work needed to be done 
in the world which men and women may do equally well. Equal 
opportunities should be given for the education of each in the di- 
rection of efficient performance of these lines of work. In the 
lines of general culture and training, in so far as there can be 
culture without reference to efficient action, the education of men 
and women may be the same — but in so far as their work varies 
and demands special knowledge, differing in one field from that in 
the other, in so far as effectiveness in action depends upon special 
training required in one and not in the other, the necessity for differ- 
entiation exists. 

Society Demands Greater Efficiency. 

Today we are realizing as never before the lack of efficiency in 
the vast majority of those who do the work that society demands. 
If the possible efficiency of the farming population were realized, 
the products of the soil now under cultivation in the United States 
would be increased at least 100%. We are beginning to realize 
this fact, and hence the demand from all parts of the country fur 



6 — 



the sorl of education for the country hoy :in<l girl that shall hasten 
the development of this efficiency. The manufacturers realize the 
inefficiency of their employees <>t' every grade, and these employees, 
if they do not fully recognize their own inefficiency, see the lack 
of those kinds of educational facilities, necessary to develop effi- 
ciency 'm their children, and they unite with the manufacturers in 
demanding a place for industrial education. 

The great transportation companies are admitting the lack of 
efficiency among their operatives and are providing the educa- 
tional machinery for securing it. Workers for civic and social up- 
lift lind themselves handicapped by the inefficiency of the agents 
through whom they must work, and in response to their call for 
help, educational agencies are being provided to develop compe- 
tent workers in these fields. 

The impulse of this awakening to the call for efficiency is felt 
everywhere throughout the length and breadth of the land, and the 
demand is becoming more insistent every day for such a broaden- 
ing of educational means and ends as .shall make it possible, for 
those who are to do the work that society needs to have done, to 
acquire the knowledge and training essential for efficiency in the 
doing. The demand is not less for the cultural element in educa- 
tion, not less for the highesl professional and technical training 
for those who have the ability and inclination to secure it, but 
there is an added demand for the millions who have neither the 
ability nor the inclination to secure this training -a demand that 
educational effort shall he directed toward preparing these millions 
to do something well that needs to he done in order that they and 
society may both be benefited by their increased efficiency in 
doing. A narrow range of useful knowledge coupled with effi- 
ciency in iis use is better for the individual and for society than a 
wider range of knowledge, useless or useful, without efficiency in 
action. 

The Home is the Unit of Society 

The home is the unit of society; within it are found influences 
and forces thai are mosl potent in shapina* the life of the individ- 
ual, in determining the state of society and the character of the 
[rational life. From it have come the millions who constitute the 
population of this country. From it come every year more than 
two million new born citizens. Within the next decade there will 
be born more than five times as many children ;is there were souls 



— 7 — 

in this country when we became an independent nation, and two- 
thirds as many as there were people living- in the United States 
when the civil war began. Through infancy, childhood, and 
early youth, the care and nurture of the individuals composing this 
vast army is a most important part of the work of the home. The 
physical condition, the shaping of tendencies, the character of 
habits formed, the mental and moral development of the child, 
the pi'omise and potency of later life, are influenced most pro- 
foundly, one may say are determined almost exclusively, by the 
influences of the home life. Are these influences and forces of 
sufficient importance to demand intelligent effort to prevent their 
being left to the sport and play of ignorance or accident? 

How much is involved in the two words care and nurture of 
the child! For its proper care, there must be intelligent action, 
and intelligent action must be based upon a knowledge of the 
p!i3\sical organism of the mother and her child; of what is essential 
for both for the best physical development of the infant and, later, 
of the child considered solely as a healthy animal. 

Duties of the Homemaker 

It is thought to be necessary for a farmer who would raise hogs 
or poultry successfully to study the structure and organism of each 
type, the properties of foods best adapted for their development, 
the preparation of these foods, and proper times for feeding, and 
the variety and amount of food to be given at different times and 
for different purposes. Few realize how much more difficult is the 
problem of feeding the child. It comes into the world perhaps 
the most helpless of new born things. Of the two million child- 
ren born annually, one in six dies before the end of the first year; 
one in three by the end of fifth year. Boards of health, physi- 
cians, and scientific experts who have investigated this subject 
unite in declaring that a large percentage of this deatli rate is due 
solelj 7 to ignorance on the part of those responsible for the feed- 
ing of the child. 

It is impossible to say how large a proportion of the illness of 
adults in the home is due to the same kind of ignorance — ignor- 
ance of what is proper in food, of what is proper in its prepar- 
ation and care and of what is essential in amount and kind to meet 
the varying needs of the older members of the family. 

Connected with this single problem of feeding the family is an- 
other of no small importance, and that is the economic problem. 



The bearing of this problem on the different members of the fam- 
ily ' s one of vast social and industrial importance. Proper 
feeding of the family, when no account lias to be taken of expense 
is a simple proposition compared with the proper feeding, when 
at every moment the lack of money makes wise choice and proper 
preparation of food a much more difficult problem. 

The health of the different members of the family as affected by 
other causes than incorrect feeding- is a matter of vital importance. 
Knowledge of the proper means for the prevention of disease 
through proper sanitary conditions in the home, proper care of the 
person, and of means for the prevention of bad effects from un- 
avoidable exposure, immediate treatment in case of accident, and 
proper nursing- in case of illness, are essential for the proper dis- 
charge of the responsibilities of the homemaker. 

Sanitary conditions in and about the home as related to heat- 
ing, lighting, ventilation system, water supply, sewage disposal, 
and care of drainage system, are factors affecting the health of the 
family. 

The clothing of the family involving wise choice with reference 
to economy, adaptation to needs, durability, care, and pleasing 
effect, is another subject demanding a wide range of knowledge 
and skill in order to secure the best results. 

The housing of the family, involving wise selection of furnish- 
ings and decoration, is another responsibility devolving upon the 
bomemaker, requiring special knowledge of wide range in order 
to secure tin- highest degree of comfort and aesthetic effect at a 
minimum cost. 

The development of the child's mental power and spiritual na- 
ture while in the home, in such manner as to fix tendencies and de- 
velop characteristics essential for the best and most complete 
later development, is a problem that may well tax the mind of the 
wisest individual. 

This is a brief though fairly comprehensive statement of what 
may be regarded as the most important of the duties devolving 
upon the homemaker. That these duties may lie discharged with 
efficiency is essential for the well-being of the home, of each indi- 
vidual in it, and of society at large. 

Who is the Homemaker? 

Who is the bomemaker? She is the girl who is to be educated 
today and who, as the woman of tomorrow', is to assume these 
responsibilities. The home is a universal institution; it is found 



— 9 



everywhere; practically every human being" has come from it, and 
has been affected for good or ill by its influence, its direct or in- 
direct teachings. More than three-fourths of the women of 
marriageable age assume sooner or later the responsibilities of the 
homemaker. It is the one occupation which is most universal for 
the woman. The perpetuity and well-being of the race depend 
upon the maintenance of the home and upon the proper adminis- 
tration of its affairs. As practically every woman looks forward 
to the time when sooner or later she shall assume the responsibil- 
ities of the home, (and, since for the great majority of them, 
that time surely will come,) and considering their importance to 
the race, it seems an inevitable conclusion that no education for 
the girl is adequate which does not take these responsibilities 
into account and provide for such instruction and training as 
shall insure their effective discharge. 

It is sometimes argued that the place for the girl to secure this 
knowledge and training is in the home. The complete and 
sufficient answer to that argument is, that she does not there se- 
cure it, and that her mother is not competent to give such in- 
struction and training, even if she had the time and inclination to 
do it, and if her daughter had the time and inclination to secure 
it. Every phase of knowledge indicated as essential for the proper 
discharge of the duties of the homemaker is capable of being- 
organized for instructional purposes and it may be taught in the 
school. If it is not dealt with there, it will be dealt with no- 
where in any adequate manner. 

The woman's instinct is sometimes spoken of as a safe guide in 
all these matters, but in view of the results obtained, and in view 
of the truths of biological science, such a claim is too absurd for 
consideration. Not all of these matters have as yet been properly 
organized as pedagogic material, but this is rapidly being done. 
The great problem is to find a place in our present school organi- 
zation where that work may be done. 

- It will doubtless mean the elimination of some subjects from 
the curriculum which girls have been required to study, not be- 
cause the study of them best ministered to their needs, but be- 
cause of tradition, harking back to the time when courses of in- 
struction were organized for boys upon the theory of general cul- 
ture and training. 

We do not meet the situation by providing means for general 
culture of which at best only a limited number of girls can :iv:iil 



— 10 



themselves. We recognize the need of special education of the 
in. i to lit them to do something well. We are pressing vigor- 
ously for the development of this special education for efficiency 
in action in the agricultural, commercial, and industrial world, 
but we are practically ignoring the claims of the most important 
vocation in which human beings can engage and in which a larger 
number are sure to engage than in any other vocation that can be 
named. We hear on every hand, the claims for special education 
for the eight million wage earners, women and girls, to tit them 
to cam a larger wage and to better their social and industrial con- 
dition. Too much cannot be said upon this point and yet we are 
ignoring the fact that by the majority of these eight million wage 
eai'ners, the present vocation is regarded as temporary, a mere 
makeshift until the opportunity presents itself to assume the re- 
sponsibilities of home life, and that for the assumption of these 
responsibilities they have had practically no preparation whatever. 
The woman is the homemaker, the wide range of activities de- 
manded of her in this field of effort, the vital importance of these 
activities to all concerned, demand special preparation which she 
is not now receiving. The welfare of society, the well being of 
the nation, depend upon the efficiency of the woman in the home, 
and that efficiency depends upon special education for such 
efficiency. 














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